Supporting Individual learning through coaching and mentoring

Introduction

As integral to the In-house induction program, the corresponding Learning and Development related assessment has been developed to be utilised for the purpose of sharing necessary learning experience with new recruits. The research study has been oriented towards providing effective understanding concerning the various aspects related to the processes of organisational mentoring and coaching.

The Coaching and Mentoring concepts could be understood to be the methods of impartation of learning in the employees within the working architecture of any specific organisation. The objectives of both of these processes are to provide assistance to the procedures of employee improvement in terms of acquisition of effective and applicable knowledge and experience from peers or mentors within the organisational framework and the concepts of Coaching and Mentoring are applicable in the most interchangeable manners. Coaching, as a definitive process, primarily utilises case specific guidance methods (Hunt and Weintraub, 2016).

The techniques of Active Listening, Obtaining Clarifications of the gained information, Enquiring through pointed questions and Reframing of the obtained learning are the fundamental constituents of both of the processes of Coaching and Mentoring. In terms of the immediacy of emphasis, Coaching entails objectives, targets and measures of achieved outcomes by the coached employees of the respective organisations. The process of defining the skills and capabilities of involved organisational human resources for the further enhancement of the same, is integral to such a procedure. These facets provide Coaching the distinctive quality through which it could be differentiated from Mentorship and other learning methods such as Training. One significant difference between Coaching and Training, in this context, is that the Coach does not own the content on which the Coachee could be receiving guidance while in Training, the Trainer controls both the processes and the content of the training. Another difference between these two processes is that the Trainer provides direct learning experience in the mode of instructions to the Trainee, while, /the Coach controls the coaching process through forwarding inquests to the Coachee to identify the learning needs. Finally, Coaching is a personalised (one to one) learning experience where are Training is a group based endeavour (Hawkins, 2012).

Difference between Training and Coaching as learning methods

A fundamental difference between Coaching and Mentoring is that the former entails a strictly formalised as well as structured approach and the later involves a collaborative and guidance based approach.

Identification of different types and styles of Coaching

Performance Coaching could be acknowledged as to have originated from the theoretical underpinnings of Sports Psychology and the Psychological Theory (Lancer, Clutterbuck, and Megginson, 2016). Another type of Coaching could be identified to be the Skills Coaching method through which emphasis is posited on the expansion of fundamental capabilities and skills of organisational employees through deadline based adaptive and flexible methods (Martin, 2016).

Furthermore, the research of Garvey (2018) has outlined that the type of Executive Coaching as performance oriented learning impartation and this method application is generally premised upon the participation of the most experienced managers/team leaders/executives within the working architecture of respective organisations.

The formats of Democratic and Autocratic coaching could be underlined to be the most predominant coaching styles in the current corporate scenario (Ladyshewsky, 2017). Autocratic style of coaching focuses on the obligatory and compulsive methods of performance enhancement and this style also entails exclusive control by the Coach on every format of formulated decision.

The scope of coachee input provisioning is almost non-existent and thus, Autocratic coaching pertains to absolute inflexibility of coaching measures.

On the contrary, the Democratic coaching style emphasises upon assistance and facilitation through inclusive decision formulation and realistic goal setting. Inputs of coachees are valued. These aspects transform this coaching style into a person centric approach. The coaching outcomes are primarily shaped through a gradual manner and the Coach provides the framework of progress in this context. Autonomy of initiatives by coachees is encouraged under Democratic coaching style.

Stages in a one-to-one coaching process and the roles of coach and coachee

Four different stages of personalized, 1 to 1 coaching, involving Plan formulation, Coaching methods implementation, Contract formulation and Evaluation, are recognizable (Minzlaff, 2019).

Planning

Occurrence of direct consultations in between coach and coachee.

Introductory conversations are utilized for the purpose of future progress and collaborative working process determination.

Contracting

Independent reflections are applied concerning individual roles, attitudes and responsibilities by both the coach and the coahee.

Professional discussions are held to facilitate interpersonal collaboration.

Development of professional relationships which, could be productive and efficacious in terms of furtherance of professional abilities of the coachee, are undertaken.

Coaching methods implementation

Coachee developmental needs identification and associated professional agreements formulation are undertaken at this stage.

Existing procedural ambiguities are resolved through clarification of working processes.

Different questions are provided to the coachee by the coach so as to gather qualitative information on the needs assessment perspective and this leads to development of solutions for existing issues and developmental goals are also formulated during this stage.

Trust formulation between the coach and coachee.

Coachee has to accept the responsibility of management of professional learning.

Performance goals determination and achievement of the same.

Management of behavioural changes.

Evaluation

The applied coaching techniques are evaluated consistently at this stage.

The comparison of the coaching outcomes with predetermined objectives is undertaken during this stage.

Evaluation of the outcomes is also provided with the perspective of success concerning the measure of benefit such outcomes could provide in the context of coachee performance development.

The potential benefits of coaching for coachee and coach

Concerning the extents of implications and impact, the derived benefits from coaching could be acknowledged to be multifarious. The contingencies of market competition could outline the significance of employee performance enhancement and competence level expansion. The management of organisational business functionalities could be best facilitated through the expanded competency measures of coached employees of respective corporate enterprises. Such benefits could be achieved through most effectively focusing on providing the coached employees the skills, information, experiences and knowledge necessary for them to perform productively at their professional designations. Expectation fulfilment could be considered to be the primary indicator through which such benefits could be identified. Specific operational junctures are also effective as indicators concerning highlighting of the benefits of performance enhancement through coaching which could be demonstrated by coached employees through management of organisational functionalities such as HRM, sales, technical responsibilities and marketing.

Another benefit is the completion of learning endeavours by organisational personnel through utilisation of systematic development progression which could be learnt through proper coaching. One other benefit is the learning of the process of effective scheduling of responsibilities and prioritisation of the same so that time constraints could be the same.

Mentoring concept and the nature of the relationship between mentor and mentee

The concept of Mentoring, as a divergent learning method from that of Coaching, outlines the according of support to mentees by their mentors through the application of effective and suitable guidance measures (Garvey et al. 2017). This concept is particularly reflective of the effectiveness of extensive learning from individual personalities (mentors). The aspects of experience and knowledge of mentors and the ability to impart the same as definitive guidance to the mentees are integral to the overall mentorship approach and the measure of effectiveness of this process outlines the efficacy of cooperation and collaboration in between the involved personnel (mentees and mentors). The practices, procedures and principles of mentoring could be acknowledged to be the fundamental basis on which the organisational human resource excellence enhancement processes are established. The emphasis of the process of mentoring is firmly posited on the factor of human resource competency developed through the impartation of guidance through experienced personnel.

Mentoring process and roles of mentor and mentee

Mentorship demonstrates a professional relationship involving experienced mentor and relatively inexperienced mentee. As opposed to the coaching based immediacy of skill development of employees, mentoring strives towards broader improvement of career opportunities of employees. The prevalent methods are Peer Mentoring, One-on-One Mentoring, Group Mentoring and Functional Mentoring. The emphasis is concentrated, in terms of application of such methods of mentoring, on the productive communication aspects. The fundamental constituents of the overall mentoring structure are introduction of the mentor to the mentee, the development of foundation of collaborative assistance between them, the determination of guidance orientation, the collaboration between the mentee and the mentor in terms of identification of proper solutions to the issues experienced by the mentee and transition achievement from a personalised to a professional framework of capability development.

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Potential benefits of mentoring

Various benefits are recognisable in the form of the following:

Professional target achievement capability improvement.

Expansion in comprehension of the necessary linkages between performance and predetermined goals.

Greater capability fostering within the Mentees concerning inculcation of obtained learning.

Better aptitude development concerning development of solutions of existing issues.

Development of ownership based responsibility (this involves the Mentors specifically).

Development of greater self-awareness (this involves the Mentees).

Model and techniques in coaching and mentoring with support to individual learning

The initial model of coaching/mentoring which could be applied is the GROW model (Terblanche, Albertyn and van Coller-Peter, 2017). The initial technique of the GROW (Goal, Reality, Options and Will) model, involving the Goal aspects, is comprises of the following:

Formulation of definitive targets based goals for coachees which are necessitated to be fulfilled.

The sense of purpose as well as direction of professional potential development is established through meaningful sessions of coaching.

The goal establishment relies upon success and motivation driven future objectives.

The inquests are resolved concerning the methods of relating the coaching process to the operational development imperatives associated with the individual coaches.

The Reality technique could be considered to be constituted by the following functionalities:

Realisation of situational actualities through prolonged discussions between the mentor/coach and mentee/coachee so as to determine the obstacles (both internal and external) which could hamper their progression towards the mentorship based goal obtainment.

The actual nature of such obstacles are analysed in a mutual manner between the involved sides.

Exploration of options by coachee/mentee to outline solutions to existing problems.

Arrival at agreement by the coach/mentor and coachee/mentee concerning the aspects such as accountability management, timeframe development and necessary actions which could assist in the guidance based learning processes.

Evaluation of the scope of determined functionalities and the scheduling of the same.

Outlining the indicators which could signify success and efficacy within the mentorship or coaching process including the scaling measures which could be utilized for success evaluation.

Demonstration of model and techniques within coaching/mentoring

The OSCAR (Outcome, Situation, Choices, Actions and Review) model could be utilized to further the objectives of both mentoring and coaching (Lancer, Clutterbuck and Megginson, 2016). The involved techniques are as the following:

Outcome technique: i)Expectations and objectives of coachee/mentee are developed on the basis of term based (long, medium and short).

Visualisation of outcomes which be coveted.

Scaling technique: i) The development of clarification of objectives and coveted results is performed.

Choices technique: i) The clarifications of the choices, in the format of available options,

Review technique: i) Assessment of the entirety of learning and experience sharing process to ensure that the undertaken effort has been aligned successfully with the previously determined objectives of personal development.

Format for recording agreed actions and outcomes of coaching/mentoring conversation

Reference List

Boysen, S., Cherry, M., Amerie, W. and Takagawa, M., 2018. Organisational Coaching Outcomes: A comparison of a practitioner survey and key findings from the literature. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 16(1), p.159.

Garvey, B., 2018. Mentoring and coaching. In The Handbook of Communication Skills (pp. 423-450). Routledge.

Garvey, R., Garvey, B., Stokes, P. and Megginson, D., 2017. Coaching and mentoring: Theory and practice. Sage.

Hawkins, P., 2012. Creating a coaching culture: Developing a coaching strategy for your organization. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Hunt, J.M. and Weintraub, J.R., 2016. The coaching manager: Developing top talent in business. SAGE publications.

Ladyshewsky, R.K., 2017. Peer coaching as a strategy to increase learning and development in organisational life-a perspective. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 15(1), p.4.

Lancer, N., Clutterbuck, D. and Megginson, D., 2016. Techniques for coaching and mentoring. Routledge.

Martin, J., 2016. Embedding Coaching and Mentoring in Peer Observation. Reclaiming Lesson Observation: Supporting excellence in teacher learning, p.103.

Minzlaff, K.A., 2019. Organisational coaching: integrating motivational interviewing and mindfulness with cognitive behavioural coaching. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 12(1), pp.15-28.

Terblanche, N.N.H., Albertyn, R.M. and van Coller-Peter, S., 2017. Designing a coaching intervention to support leaders promoted into senior positions. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 15(1), pp.1-10.